Regardless of how crazy and self-absorbed our world may seem, this week I was assured that – though sometimes hidden under a bushel – humanity’s light still shines.

On Monday, my sister-in-law and I got up early to head out to Oxford. I had ordered some chairs, and they had come in. And since my vehicle is small, I was borrowing my mom’s SUV to make sure there would be plenty of room.

My sister-in-law and I have made many-a-road-trip together, and when we get in the car to go somewhere, we don’t stop talking until we get back home.

In fact, one time we were heading to Jackson to catch a flight out to San Francisco, and we were so engrossed in our conversation we failed to take the exit to the airport.

By the time we realized we had gone too far, we had to quickly turn around. Thank goodness the flight had not yet left, but we did have to make a beeline to the terminal with bags in tow. Now-a-days, you could never have boarded a flight with unchecked luggage. Gone are the good old days.

Monday had been no different. We were just a chatting away, when a woman drove up beside us frantically waving her arms and motioning for us to pull over. At first, we were a bit baffled as to why she thought we should pull over, but we did, which was just before exit 39 on 1-20.

As we came to a stop on the side of the road, it was evident as to why this woman had been frantic.

Smoke started billowing out everywhere, so we quickly got out of mom’s car, but not before grabbing our purses like the woman was advising.

Needless to say, my heart was pounding ninety-to-nothing. I had mentioned to my sister-in-law just before the lady in the car started waving us down, that a maintenance light had popped on and that it seemed like mom’s car was slowing. But I ultimately just chalked it up to me not being familiar with her Lexus.

Well, apparently, mom’s vehicle was giving me a warning — one I didn’t heed, and since we could not see any smoke from our vantage point, we were just boogying on down the road.

But thank goodness for Betty Bowman. Had it not been for her concern, no telling what would have become of my sister-in-law, mom’s SUV and me.

Truly, she had been an angel looking over us on Monday. Maybe she wasn’t the kind with the white wings that flies down from on high, but an angel nonetheless.

Not only did we have angel Betty Bowman watching over us, but shortly after we pulled onto the shoulder of the road a kindly young man exited off the highway to see if he could be of any assistance.

As the smoke from mom’s car began to dissipate, he opened the hood to inspect the situation and informed us it looked to be a radiator issue.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get his last name, but Jeremy was every bit an angel as was Betty Bowman.

This heavenly help, if you can believe it, didn’t end with Betty and Jeremy. After my sister-in-law made a call to my brother, who then called Billy Crozier at Cannon Toyota, Billy sent two men in two vehicles — one of which was for us to use to drive back to Vicksburg, where we could then jump in my vehicle and head back north for the chairs, which we did.

Without a doubt, Monday had been a long day, but a good day.

My sister-in-law and I had been covered in kindness and we were thankful for the people who came to our aid — people who were willing to be our angels.

And I guess you could say, a final blessing was the chairs fit in the back of my car.

Terri Cowart Frazier writes features for The Vicksburg Post. She can be reached at terri.frazier@vicksburgpost.com.